Brass box holds Titanic 'secret'

It was a small brass trinket box that held safe its secret link to the Titanic across the years and thousands of miles.

It was a gift from JJ Brown to his wife, better known as the Unsinkable Molly Brown, after she had survived the Titanic disaster and lived to make enough of a name for herself to inspire a Broadway musical.

The trinket box features in a new exhibition at Belfast's Linenhall Library as the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's launch looms.

Deborah Douglas from the Linenhall said it was the first time that the trinket box had been given on loan for an exhibition.

The exhibition also features an original black and white photograph of the Titanic when it was floated for the first time, in May 1911.

She is pictured minus the trademark funnels which were added after the shipbuilders had ensured she was seaworthy.

The first editions of two books on the Titanic also feature. One was commissioned by the family of shipbuilder Thomas Andrews, who perished.